The Long Beach Playhouse begins its 88th Mainstage season with the haunting tale of a vicious hound and the hunt for a killer who can only be stopped by Sherlock Holmes and his trusted sidekick, Dr. Watson.

“I’ve always been a Sherlock Holmes fan, and the ‘Hound of the Baskervilles’ has been the No. 1 story,” said Andrew Vonderschmitt, executive and producing artistic director of the Long Beach Playhouse. “It’s really cool, because it’s got the supernatural aspect to it.”

Based on the story by Sherlock Holmes creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the play opens Sept. 24 and runs through Oct. 22.

It’s the first of the company’s seven-show Mainstage season, which includes comedies such as the farce “Don’t Dress for Dinner” set for Nov. 5-Dec.3, holiday classics such as Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” playing Dec. 10-18, and musicals such as “Guys and Dolls,” which closes the season July 1 to Aug. 5.

The season-opening play, meanwhile, is one of the best-known mysteries in the Sherlock Holmes series.

It focuses on the curse of the Baskerville family and the supernatural canine said to stalk its members.

One of the family members, Sir Charles Baskerville, has died under suspicious circumstances and his nephew enlists the help of Sherlock Holmes to solve the mystery.

The Playhouse production will be presented from an adaptation by F. Andrew Leslie that is very close to the original novel with staging that will rely on dark lighting, sound effects and some scenes underscored with music to add to the mystery.

“I’ve always loved the genre and the mystery and getting the clues and trying to follow along,” said Mitchell Nunn, a frequent Playhouse collaborator who is directing the play.

“For this is one I think everyone thinks they know the real story and who did what, and the who and the why, but I think a lot gets lost in translation over the years,” he said, adding that with this production people will find the real story, rather than “the one they think they know.”

And while it’s a Sherlock Holmes story, and the detective makes an appearance, in this particular piece Watson is the main sleuth, which is fine with Stephen Alan Carver, who portrays the famous sidekick.

“In this play, Watson is onstage pretty much the whole time,” he said. “The way this play is structured, the audience really will understand that Holmes couldn’t do it without Watson and Holmes even admits that he can’t do it without Watson,” Carver said.